We are the world’s largest university press. That means we serve the academic community as no other publisher can. We work in partnership with institutions and learned societies to bring a world of knowledge to the fingertips of students and researchers worldwide.

The goal is impact. Together with our academic communities, we curate and seamlessly connect together the ideas that push their fields forward, so they can learn from them, add to them, and continue a virtuous cycle of scholarship.

And because we are a part of the academic community and guided in everything we do by our mission, we re-invest in our people, our publishing, and the world-leading research institution of which we are part.

About the Role

The Data and Platform team is the technology engine behind Oxford Languages, delivering curated data products and services in over 50 languages to meet the needs of global customers and users. The Head of Data Delivery plays a senior role within this team, translating business priorities into strategic delivery plans that drive operational excellence, customer satisfaction, and commercial impact. You will oversee the delivery of Academic and Language data products across internal teams and external partners, deputising for the team lead and shaping the direction of delivery strategy.

With responsibility for multiple delivery teams and areas of expertise, the role ensures resources and workflows are aligned to produce high-quality, scalable data solutions. You will foster a culture of ownership, innovation, and continuous improvement, while contributing to technical design governance, vendor relationships, and cross-functional planning. The Head of Data Delivery is also accountable for team performance, talent development, and succession planning, building a resilient and adaptable delivery function. While the current focus is on Academic products, the role may also support B2B lexical and other product lines.

We operate a hybrid working policy that requires a minimum of 2 days per week in the Oxford office. 

About You

Essential:

• Proven experience of leading, developing, and empowering technical teams, both onsite and remote.
• Proven experience of multi-team and cross-functional program management.
• Vendor selection, vendor and contract management.
• Agile, scrum, and scaled agile frameworks.
• Know-how of technical design, architecture.
• Know-how and practice of working with structured data, such as XML and JSON and related technologies.
• Participation in technical design, and technical governance forums.

Desirable:

• Experience in change management and transformations.
• Experience of working with data pipelines for AI use-cases.
• Experience of working with lexical or language data or systems.

Benefits

We care about work/life balance here at OUP. With this in mind we offer 25 days’ holiday that rises with service, plus bank holidays and Christmas closure (3-days) and a 35-hour working week. We are open to discussing flexibility in respect to working patterns, dependent on role. We also have a great variety of active employee networks and societies. 

We help make your money go further by contributing to your pension up to 12%, offering loans and savings schemes through our partnership with Salary Finance, in addition to travel to work schemes and access to a wide range of local discounts. 

This role comes with the added benefit of private medical insurance and a management bonus.

Please see our Rewards and Recognition page for more information.

Queries

Please contact grace.mcfadyen@oup.com with any queries relating to this role. 

We are committed to supporting diversity in our workforce, and ensuring an inclusive environment where all individuals can thrive. We seek to employ a workforce representative of the markets that we serve and encourage applications from all.